


i can't read your mind, baby

by kawaiipose



Series: What We Talkin' Bout (a high school NCT au) [1]
Category: NCT (Band)
Genre: 3 chapters at most lmao, Bi mark, Cute, I'm so weird, M/M, MINOR FIGHTS OOP, Mark is a cutie, NCT 2018, TRIGGER WARNING - HOMOPHOBIA BY HYUCKS PARENTS, cuteness, donghyuck is friends w the dreamies, everyone knows but them, gay hyuck, good friends uwu wuw, hyuck dont wanna fall in love, hyuck's parents are assssssholes, hyuck's parents hate him ahah, im sorry, johnny is mark's bro, jungwoo and doyoung are cuties, literally just fluff and cuteness uwu, mark is friends w the seniors (127 and wayv), mark is kinda mean at the start but he gets better!!, nct is a gay mess, renjun SHIPS IT !!!1!!!, taeil is a teacher!!, taeyong is hyuck's bro, thank you xo, they get really close, they have tiny mini fights, this is also me venting bc i hAte TUTORING, this is literal trash, winwin and yuta get together in the bg
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-07-02
Updated: 2019-07-02
Packaged: 2020-06-02 19:50:54
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,869
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/19448374
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/kawaiipose/pseuds/kawaiipose
Summary: Mark is an A grade senior maths student, who is being paid (generously) to tutor Donghyuck Lee, a little shit from grade 11 that is failing maths so badly Mark isn't sure he can help. But the more they hang out, the more Mark realises Dongyuck really isn't that dumb, and he isn't as annoying as he likes people to think. Suddenly Mark finds himself kind of in love with dumbass Donghyuck Lee.





	i can't read your mind, baby

“You understand, yes?”

Understand? _UNDERSTAND?!_ Mark was far from retarded, but he felt like he must be. Or maybe his ears are malfunctioning? He glanced back at his professor, then at the slip of paper in his hand. This can’t be real.

“One more time...?” Mark mumbles, looking up just in time to catch Mr. Moon’s eyeroll.

“Donghyuck Lee – the one in grade eleven – is failing mathematics. You, Mark Lee, are my best maths student in the whole of grade twelve, and you’re somewhat of a people person, judging by the amount of friends you have. Donghyuck is a handful, but I’m sure you’re up for a challenge. So, tutor him. Every day afterschool, 4:30 to 6.”

Mark’s head was fucking spinning, man. Spinning in huge ass circles because everyone _hated_ Donghyuck Lee. He was funny, sure, and actually pretty good looking, but he was also insanely annoying. In all fairness, Mark hasn’t ever actually _talked_ to Donghyuck before, but Lucas is always going on about how annoying the boy is about his relationship with Renjun.

Mark looked at his teacher again, pulling his best utterly-disgusted-and-disappointed face. This time Mr. Moon didn’t even _try_ to hide his eyeroll.

“Mark Lee, I know you’re not stupid, so stop acting like it! This is $20 bucks an hour, 5 days a week! Do you know how much you’ll get a week? Huh?”

Mark did the calculation in his head quickly. “Uhhhh... 150?”

“Yes Mark! 150 bucks, cash in hand! Think about that!”

Mark sighed. It was good money. But did he really want to spend that much time with Donghyuck Lee a week? It was a big ask.

“Look Mark,” Mr Moon said, quieting his voice and clapping Mark on the shoulder. “Donghyuck... he’s a witty kid. He’s got a lot going on at the moment and he’s letting that affect his grades. It won’t be like you think, okay? Give him a chance.”

So that’s why Mark Lee, 17 years old, was standing outside a nice brick house. The letterbox had read “The Lee’s!” in nice curly letters and the flowers lining the driveway gave the house a nice... welcoming presence. Which was apparently misleading, judging by the intense shouting coming from inside the home.

“... he’s a _disgrace,_ and he doesn’t belong in our home!”

Mark felt his skin crawl and his stomach twist violently. Mayyybe he should just turn around, forget he was ever going to this. He turned his heel, ready to flee from the house and never-

The front door swung open, and a voice shouted “hey!”

Mark turned again to see the boy himself: Donghyuck Lee. He looked different closer up: Mark had literally never interacted with him but he had seen him from a distance, lively, loud... drastically different to Mark himself. But now, now he was quieter, his features relaxed, sad even.

“Uhhhh, hiiiiiiiii....” Mark cursed himself for being shy and overall awkward all the time. Shit, shit, shit. He prepared himself for a spitfire roast.

“Hi... you’re Mark Lee, yeah?” Donghyuck’s tone was tired, and he scrubbed at his face with a sweater paw.

“Yeah! I mean... yeah, yeah that’s me.”

“Cool. Um, you can come in.”

Mark hesitated, looking up from his shoes. Their eyes met for a moment. Donghyuck looked away first.

“My room’s up here,” he mumbled before practically running up the stairs.

What the fuck, Mark thought, then he slowly climbed the stairs.

~

Donghyuck was trying to lighten his mood, really, he was. He could feel Mark Lee’s eyes on him as he moved around his room gathering his pencils and textbooks. He knew this wasn’t like him, but he couldn’t help it. His mother’s words rang through his head on repeat, bashing at his insides as he sat down at his desk next to Mark.

“Um, I’m Mark?” Mark said.

“You’ve already said that,” Donghyuck replied.

“Oh.”

Donghyuck let himself snort, his mood lifting slightly. “I’m Donghyuck. But you probably knew that. You’re friends with Lucas, yeah? You can call me Hyuck if you want. Or Haechan, that’s what my mates call me.”

Mark’s face was frozen in shock for a moment as he processed his words, and Hyuck wanted to laugh again. He forgot most people weren’t as fast as him. He probably needed to slow himself down, so Mark could keep up.

“’Full Sun,’ really?” Mark replied after a moment, snorting slightly as he reached into his bag for his laptop. Hyuck let another bubble of laughter leave his lips as he turned to a clean page in his notebook.

“Yeah... too cocky?”

“Maybe a little.”

Hyuck let himself relax in Mark’s company. Maybe tutoring wouldn’t be that bad...

~

Mark was ready to stab Hyuck with his razor sharp pacer.

“You’re doing it backwards!”

Hyuck rolled his eyes before glaring at Mark. “I got the answer in the end, dipshit! It should count either way.”

“Well it _doesn’t,_ because that’s not how algebra _works._ When you move onto the harder problems you’ll get stuck and then you’ll get it wrong!”

“Argh!” Hyuck exclaimed, slamming his pencil onto the tabletop. “I suck, I suck, I _suck!_ ”

Mark felt his frustration leave him with every exhalation of breath. Then, he slowly, awkwardly pat Hyuck’s shoulder exactly two and a half times.

“Uhm... there there? Ahah..”

Hyuck looked at Mark, rolled his eyes, then laughed.

“Who would’ve thought that Mark Lee would turn out to be such a dork?” Hyuck said, chuckling softly. Mark would usually take offense to such a thing, but he was starting to think that Hyuck wasn’t as annoying as he first presumed.

“Heh... well, for what it’s worth, you don’t suck. You’re just... learning. And that’s okay. I’m still learning how to do science well. I mean, I fucking suck at science! But studying helped a lot. So maybe that’s all we have to do? Just... study?”

Hyuck smirked. “Wow, Mark Lee, you genius! I haven’t thought’a that one!”

Mark frowned. “I’m serious, okay? I can help you study... better. Just, buy some palm cards and we’ll get started tomorrow.”

Hyuck was silent for a moment, staring at his shoes with a stricken expression on his face before muttering, “is there any way we can study at yours?”

Mark wasn’t exactly taken aback, but he felt like he was missing something big. “Why?”

Hyuck sighed, looking up, his eyes wide and pleading. “Just... please?”

Mark assumed _just please_ was Hyuck’s way of saying _just trust me._

And Mark didn’t, because Mark wasn’t an idiot and he didn’t exactly trust quickly.

But the look on Hyuck’s face told him he had to.

“Yeah... okay.”

~

“Was he cute, like I said?!”

Hyuck rolled his eyes and glared at Renjun, who was all smiles. Jeno and Jaemin leaned in closer, not wanting to miss a detail. Chenle and Jisung were preoccupied – they were seeing who could boop the other on the nose the most amount of times – but were still half listening in. everyone wanted to know how well Renjun had done at playing ‘matchmaker.’

“He’s... okay? A bit dorky and not exactly my type. Plus, I have no shot, he’s definitely straight.”

“No, no, nope, no way!” Renjun sing-songed, laughing as his friends cringed at his shrill tone. Renjun was still recovering from a bad case of tonsillitis, so his usually angelic voice sounded more like nails against a chalkboard.

_Doesn’t stop him playing tonsil tennis with good ol’ Lucas._

Hyuck makes a mental note to remember the burn for later. There is nothing quite like making Lucas embarrassed.

“He definitely is,” Hyuck replied in the same tone, his clear, un-tonsilliti-fied voice ringing soundly.

“Lucas would never hang out with heteros,” Renjun replied, clearing his throat. “Mark is such a panicked gay, it’s so obvious. That’s why I just had to recommend him to Mr. Moon! Thank me at your wedding.”

Jeno snorted. “Hyuck settling down is already a crazy idea on its own. But with an actual, genuinely nice guy like Mark Lee? They’d be cute, but it’ll never happen.”

“Stop being such a downer, Jeno,” Jaemin huffed, wrapping a hand around the boy’s shoulder and pouting. Despite their proximity, Jaemin didn’t seem to notice the flush dotting Jeno’s cheeks.

 _Oblivious Gays,_ Hyuck thought. _How horribly upsetting._

“That’s not the problem,” Jisung quipped, “the problem is the fact that nobody would be able to stand Haechan for more than five minutes, letalone long enough to date them.”

Chenle erupted into loud dolphin giggles as Hyuck tackled Jisung to the floor, shouting.

“You’re all wrong! They’ll end up all mushy-mushy, you just wait!” Renjun yelled, walking towards the door. “You. Just. Wait!”

~

Johnny’s car either smelt like flowers or ass. There was no way around that fact. Mark suspected the flower part was to cover up the ass smell, and the ass smell was 100% due to the fact that Johnny refused to have sex with his boyfriend, Ten, anywhere but in his beaten up Corolla. It made Mark uncomfortable: not the gay part, because that would be sliiightly hypocritical, but the fact that the car that he was forced to sit in on the way to school was a potential sex dungeon. He shuddered.

“So I’m picking you and Hyuckie up around 3?” Johnny asked absentmindedly.

“... _Hyuckie_?”

“Yeah...?”

“Why are you calling him Hyuckie?!”

“Uh, because I can. And because that’s what Taeyong calls him.”

“Taeyong...?”

Johnny sighed and rolled his eyes. Mark was kind of sick of people rolling their eyes at him every five seconds. “Yeah, Taeyong? Jaehyun’s boyfriend.”

Mark made a kind of noise that made him sound like he was choking and trying to hum at the same time. Jaehyun, Mark’s best friend and school mate, had been acting a bit differently, but this was not what he had been expecting. “Jaehyun didn’t tell me he was dating someone! Why am I always the last to know?!”

“Because,” Johnny said, pulling up at the school, “everyone forgets to tell you important things. It’s probably because you’re boring.”

“Shut your pie hole, whore,” Mark snapped before hopping out of the car and slamming the door all dramatic. He heard the window screech as Johnny pressed the button down.

“Have a good day, sweetpea!”

Mark grinned despite himself, turning and flipping his brother the bird. “Your car smells like ass!”

“No, you!”

\---

Mark had tried not to think about it all morning, but here’s the thing about trying not to think about something – the more you tell yourself not to, the more and more it pops up in your head.

That’s why, instead of listening in to Mr. Ross, who was trying as hard as he could to teach high level physics, he thought about Donghyuck Lee’s parents.

Well, more specifically, what they had said to him as he had been leaving Hyuck’s home.

It replayed in his head, and as it did, the dread in Mark’s stomach began to shift and squirm. It made him feel sick.

_Was he much trouble?_

Mark’s stomach felt about ready to explode, he felt so gross, so... exposed. Yet nothing had happened. To him, at least.

_That boy is such hard work._

He tried once again to turn to his work, but he felt himself sink back into the feeling.

Dread. Dread. Dread.

_So dumb, so stupid!_

_We pity you, having to teach him!_

_Stay away from him as much as you can, Mark. He’s not good for people like you._

_He’s such a bad influence, yes!_

_That’s why we’re paying you. Not for the tutoring, for putting up with him._

_Have a nice night!_

Poor Hyuck.

Mark was glad they were studying at his place.

~

Donghyuck liked the fact that most people hated him.

How weird, you might think, but Hyuck likes it that way. He likes the peacefulness of having a tight circle of friends, likes the serenity of having walls up, likes the quietness in staying guarded.

So, he knows that Renjun’s idea of sitting with ‘the seniors’ at lunch is utterly stupid. It’s loud and in his face and so, so far from his ideal serenity, ideal silence. He prepares his walls, though, ready to annoy the shit out of these seniors. That way, they’ll leave him alone. That way, he’ll be back to his quiet.

But there’s something about Mark Lee that makes him _want_ to expand his circle. He realises as he sits next to the boy how different he is than normal. His façade just... drops. He feels genuine laughter, genuine connectivity, and it makes him scared. Because he knows things won’t be silent with Mark. Something about him is different.

Scary.

Chenle and Jisung were sat on either side of Jaehyun, pinching his cheeks and poking at him. Jaehyun was slightly flushed and panicked, which made both Mark and Hyuck laugh. Renjun and Lucas were being gross, feeding each other their food and wiping left over crumbs from each other’s mouths. Hyuck gagged and turned to see Jaemin and Jeno having a polite conversation with Doyoung and Jungwoo. He smiled at the two, the way they sat, subconsciously mirroring each other. Cute, he thinks.

“So,” Hyuck said, turning his attention back to Jaehyun. “I heard you’re dating my brother. How’s that going?”

Jahyun flushed even more, looking down at his hands.

“It’s going well. Your brother... he’s really sweet.”

“To you, at least,” Hyuck murmurs and Mark laughs before also turning to the boy.

“How did you meet this guy, anyway?” Mark asked, munching on his sandwich. Hyuck picked at his, trying to pretend he was no longer interested in the conversation.

But he was. If he could get dirt on his brother, he might just cry from happiness.

“Through Johnny, and Johnny met him through Ten. I was coming over to talk to you, Mark, but apparently you weren’t home so I said I’d stick around and wait for you to come back. And then there he was, an angel sitting in your living room.”

Hyuck burst out laughing as Jisung and Chenle cooed. Mark looked like he was having trouble holding down his sandwich.

“Angel? More like devil, buddy, be glad you don’t live with him!”

Jaehyun laughed awkwardly at Hyuck’s joke before turning to slap Chenle’s arm, which was prodding him in the side.

Mark then turned to Hyuck. Hyuck felt really weird. Happy and sad. Mad and serene. Annoyed and satisfied. What do you even call a feeling like this?

Schizophrenia, his brain supplied.

“Hyuck... um, can I talk to you? Alone?”

Hyuck hesitated before nodding and standing.

“Where you off to, Haechannie?” Renjun called, his finger swiping absentmindedly at Lucas’ lip.

_Ew._

“I need Mark to help me with a question from Mr. Moon’s class. We’ll be back.”

And with that he grabbed Mark’s arm and dragged him across the cafeteria.

~

Hyuck – Haechan? Haechannie? Hyuckie? Mark didn’t even know anymore – led him to the library, where they sat on chairs overflowing with bright cushions. Mark held his breath for a moment before puffing it out and turning to Hyuck.

“Are you okay?” Mark blurted.

Hyuck’s face contorted, breezing through curiosity, shock and annoyance.

“ _Huh?”_

“Are you... o-oka... okay look I know this is none of my business and we literally met yesterday and you probably think I’m a dork and a weirdo and a jerk but I’m worried. About you? For you, I guess? I’m just worried!”

Hyuck stayed silent for a moment, looking down at his hands, which were curled into tight fists. He then looked up, his glare steely and too-serious and ... and.

Scary. Mark was scared.

“Why?”

“Look... I heard your parents arguing as I stepped up to the house and”-

“What the fuck Mark Lee.”

“No, just, just let me finish, I heard”-

“Stop.”

Mark looked at Hyuck with wide eyes. The boy was nearly shaking. With anger? Presumably. Mark wanted to shit his pants right then and there.

Hyuck’s eyeshadow – he wears eyeshadow, okay, and he wears it really fucking well - outlined his eyes in a deep alarming red. It made him look dangerous, unpredictable. It made him look really pretty.

_Shut your bi ass up, Mark Lee, now is not the fucking time!_

“Just stop! Stop eavesdropping, stop... stop pretending you give a shit! My life is personal and private and none of your business so stop sticking your nose in it!”

Hyuck stood, ready to leave, but Mark reached out, he reached out and clasped his wrist like a fucking idiot.

“I was trying to help you, okay? Your parents are assholes, okay, and you don’t deserve that! Just... let me help you!”

Hyuck snatched his wrist back, glaring even harder as he spat out “maybe, just maybe, Mark Fucking Lee, I don’t _want_ your fucking help! Maybe I’m fine without it! And maybe, asshole, if you learnt not to be such an annoying little _prick,_ people would count on you. Trust you. I met you a _day ago_ and what, you expect me to open up about my problems?! How fucking _noble_ of you. Fuck off.”

Then he stormed out of the library, the librarian shouting after him.

_Mark Lee, you are a moron._

**Author's Note:**

> new chapters every week (for 3 weeks) on Wednesday at SOMETIME, Australian time bitches


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